The conventional air conditioning system used for residential dwellings as well as for light industrial purposes utilizes an outside compressor unit having a finned condenser coil which is cooled by passing a stream of outside air through the coil.
The output of such compressor units are rated in British Thermal Units (BTUs) and the ratings are usually given in terms of outside air temperature. For example, a three ton compressor unit rated at ninety-five (95) degrees outside air temperature would be rated at 37,000 BTUs and at eighty (80) degrees outside air temperature the same unit would have a rating of 43,000 BTUs. Thus, it can be seen that if the temperature of the outside air is reduced 15 degrees passing through the compressor unit and across the condenser coil, the capacity of the unit is increased 6,000 BTUs.
Prior devices have been developed for cooling the condenser coil with water for reflecting an overall lower outside air temperature, thus, increasing the efficiency of the compressor unit and lowering the cost of operation. One such device, shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,613,392, discloses a plurality of outlet nozzles 26 carried on a feeder tube 24 for spraying into water into the space occupied by the condenser coil 12 whenever overload conditions are sensed such as excessive outside or refrigerant temperature. Such an arrangement would provide for more water than would be required for continuous use under normal operating conditions and the dousing of the coil resulting from a plurality of nozzles would tend to waste some of the water which could not be evaporated. According to the number of outlet nozzles 26, such nozzles evidently provide a rather confined stream of spray and do not break up the flow of water into finely divided particles so as to disperse over a large area and so as to be evaporated more completely.
Another prior device, shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,872,684, discloses an annular fluted ring attachment 24 for the fan which air cools a condenser coil in a window-type air conditioner unit. Water is delivered to a lower pan surface of the air conditioner casing below the fan, and the ring attachment dips into the water to create a spray of water which contacts the finned condenser coil. However, the top of the condenser coil 2 is normally the hottest portions of the coil but the fluted ring 24 arrangement provides the least amounts of spray to this area. In addition, such an arrangement would not be feasible in a system where the fan draws air through the condenser coil, such as in many of the central air conditioning systems, rather than blowing the air through the coil.